The plan unveiled Thursday is an improvement in the 2,250 city-wide camera network announced last September to link surveillance and traffic cameras. The expanded security grid would use fiber-optic cable owned by RCN Cable to network cameras along Chicago's nearly 32 miles of lakefront and include anti-bioterrorism and radiological sensors.

The integrated system would be used daily for traffic control and public safety.

Chicago's open lakefront attracts millions of visitors each year and includes the renovated Navy Pier, a tourist magnet of restaurants and attractions on Lake Michigan east of downtown that could potentially be a target of terrorists.

Ron Huberman, executive director of the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, said the "Homeland Security Grid," financed by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, would make open public areas like municipal parks and bicycle paths safer and protect water-filtration plants and other vital infrastructure.

"That means if you have a boater in trouble, we could instantly get a visual guide to police and fire right where they're needed," Huberman told a news conference at the state-of-the-art Operations Center at the 911 communications building.

"If we had an accident or a car break down on Lake Shore Drive, we'd be able to dispatch a tow truck to minimize traffic delays."

The expanded surveillance network was made possible by a $53 million court settlement reached with RCN Cable giving the city free access to 388 miles of underground fiber-optic cable for 75 years. The city will link that cable with more than 600 miles of city-owned cable over the next 18 months.

Civil-liberties activists call the growing surveillance system "Orwellian."

London, a city of 8 million where Orwell set his classic novel "1984," has more than 1.5 million closed-circuit cameras watching its streets, schools and office buildings. Despite the proliferation of cameras, police have found they can't monitor everywhere -- but the around-the-clock spy cams do act as a deterrent when properly targeted.

"We question whether cameras provide the kind of security boost they credit to them," a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union told the Chicago Tribune.

Huberman defends the system, saying sensors will be able to warn authorities of potential invisible biological, chemical or radiological dangers before people start getting sick.

"The goal of the city is to have early detection of any kind of biological, chemical or radiological attack that wouldn't be instantly visible to the eye," Huberman said. "All of our cameras are multi-use cameras. They are not only for homeland security, but they are there for crime. They are there for traffic.

"We will be able to deploy more cameras in more places and more sensors, and feed that data back here," he said.

Huberman described the system as "a virtual shield for the City of Chicago." He cited a dramatic reduction in crime in areas where cameras have been deployed.

"The city is always concerned about not having the perception that the city is acting as Big Brother," he said. "These cameras always are strictly pointed only in the public way. So we're looking at the streets, alleys, sidewalks and open park space.

"We certainly are not going to risk the goodwill and the public value by having anyone misuse these cameras in any way."

Crime declined in notorious hotspots on the West and South sides when police deployed mobile camera pods with flashing blue lights to deter drug trafficking and street crime. Critics say cameras simply pushed crime to areas not under surveillance and that potential abuse of such a sophisticated system cannot be completely eliminated.

Huberman says there are safeguards but no fail-safes for the system.

"The individuals who view these cameras have all gone through First and Fourth Amendment training. Our protocols are very strict. We watch this very, very carefully to ensure, going forward, that we are focusing these cameras purely on what we need them for, which is traffic and public safety."

Orwell's "1984" totalitarian society monitored both public movement and speech with a network of visible and secret hidden cameras and microphones.

A measure of secrecy is built into any security system. Huberman said that officials would not identify the type of sensors or number or location of all the cameras on the network.

"We never want a would-be terrorist or would-be criminal to be able to figure out how to reverse-engineer, or figure out our system, and then try to defeat it," he said.

Mayor Richard M. Daley described the network as the equivalent of hundreds of sets of eyes last year. "They're the next best thing to having police officers stationed at every potential trouble spot," Daley said.

The system will not have facial-recognition software.

RCN will spend $17.5 million to maintain and upgrade the fiber cable over five years.

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